2017 Summer Studentships and Fellowships Launched

Alpesh Patel

Animal Free Research is very pleased to announce the launch of the 2017 Summer Studentship scheme for undergraduate students and the Alan & Kathie Stross Summer Fellowship scheme.

The Summer Studentship scheme provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to extend their studies during their degree and gain valuable laboratory-based research experience over the summer period. Each 8-week Studentship, consists of a student stipend of £180 per week and up to £500 for research consumables.

The Alan and Kathie Stross Summer Fellowship scheme is for newly graduated students to gain further research experience for a 12-week period following the end of their degree. The Summer Fellowship consists of a student stipend of £200 per week and up to £1,000 for research consumables.

If your research proposal is directed towards replacing the use of animals within your laboratory or wider field, and works towards advancing scientific and medical knowledge in a human health area, then we invite you to apply. Applications that integrate a range of technical disciplines are encouraged.

Please note that we will not support or fund any Summer Schemes project that requires the use of animal-derived biomaterials.

1 in 8 women in the UK will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In partnership with Breast Cancer UK we want to raise £90,000 to fund an innovative research project that will help us to prevent the disease in more people in the future.

We rely on our amazing fundraisers to raise funds in their community to fund our ground-breaking and innovative animal free research. Our fundraising groups across the UK are the perfect place to share fundraising and volunteering ideas, network with other supporters in your area, organise fundraising events and meet up. Find a group near you.

Taleen Shakouri from the University of Hertfordshire, will be developing a computer model of certain toxicology tests which has the potential to replace many experiments currently conducted on primates and mice.

Edward Nendick at the University of Edinburgh will be using one of the latest cutting edge, gene editing technologies, CRISPR-Cas9, in cell culture to further our understanding of schizophrenia without using mice.

The ARC, at the Blizard Institute QMUL, will provide a unique environment for scientists to work together to develop human-based models of skin, breast and prostate cancer, replacing mouse models. It also aims to inspire the next generation of scientists through education about animal free research.

In 2015, the number of animals used for the first time in procedures for scientific purposes was 4.07 million (4,069,349). The number of procedures that were conducted on animals is slightly higher at 4.14 million (4,142,631). These numbers, over the past few years have remained fairly similar with both the number of animals used and the number of procedures conducted hovering around the 4 million mark consistently.

With your help, we can free animals from laboratories for good.Our work is funded entirely by your generous support. Your donation helps to fund some of the most advanced and successful human-related techniques in many areas of medical research including cancer, Alzheimer's, asthma, heart and liver disease.

The use of animals in experimentation and testing in the UK is regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, known as ASPA. This Act states the legal provisions that have been created for the protection of animals used for experimental or other scientific purposes.